It can be a challenge to lug around reusable coffee cups, not to mention clean them and keep track of them. Thus, for many, our morning cup of coffee comes out of a paper cup. After the last lukewarm drops, the cup is tossed into the garbage without so much as a second thought to what happens to it. It turns out nothing happens to it, as practically all those cups are non-recyclable and non-biodegradable.

The Beta Cup Challenge is a way to find a way around this mess. The contest is to design the best alternative to bulky reusable cups and environmentally detrimental paper cups. Designs must address issues such as waste reduction and the resources needed to manufacture them. The winner receives a $20,000 prize from Starbucks, as the coffee company is aiming to use entirely reusable or recyclable cups by 2015. Good thing, too, because we can’t all bring our “World’s Best Dad” mug on the subway every morning.

How much food packaging is too much? Two French commercials duke it out over this question with pretty goofy results. In the first video, a commercial for European Waste Reduction Week (site in French) aims to persuade consumers to make conscious packaging decisions at the supermarket and features a man being stalked by a giant monster made out of packaging waste. The second commercial, from Elipso Packaging, basically responds by saying: "Dirty hippies." Videos below. (They're in French, but you'll be all right.)

]]>http://www.eatmedaily.com/2010/03/food-packaging-monster-attacks-french-supermarket-video/feed/1Minute Maid Packaging Redesignhttp://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/11/minute-maid-packaging-redesign/
http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/11/minute-maid-packaging-redesign/#commentsTue, 17 Nov 2009 21:30:45 +0000http://www.eatmedaily.com/?p=35147Coca-Cola is introducing a new identity for its global juice portfolio, starting with Minute Maid in the U.S. beginning this month. AdAgetells us it was designed by Duffy & Partners and CMA Design in partnership with Coca-Cola's in-house design team, and The Dieline has more pictures of the redesign. Unlike Pepsi's Tropicana redesign that was launched in January and then pulled after customer outcry (and decreased sales), Minute Maid's redesign is pretty tame and probably won't cause any controversy.

The intrusion of advertising on every possible surface is relentless, and more or less inevitable. First it was coffee cups and sleeves, then seat-back trays in airplanes, then pizza boxes, and now even the lowly Chinese food take-out box is a vehicle for companies to pimp their products.

Getting this delivered to my apartment in Brooklyn (from New King Food in Park Slope) the other night wasn't all that surprising, but still, shades of Idiocracy. Apparently, advertising on Chinese take-out boxes is nothing new — the New York Timeswrote about Cingular doing it back in 2002. But as a somewhat frequent consumer of junky Chinese food, this is the first time I've come across it.

This illustration by Lunchbreath is basically a checklist for corporate greenwashing: Earth tones, sans serif type, unbleached paper, and emotional messaging are essential components of the deceptive marketing techniques employed by corporations that rebrand their products.

We liked the customer benefit: "Be selfish while appearing progressive."

Today, Starbucks introduced their VIA Ready Brew, or what they're calling "a breakthrough in instant coffee," $20 for 24 single-serve packets. What we liked most was the packaging: the box is cut out to evoke the shape of a paper coffee cup.

Currently on display at the City Reliquary in Brooklyn, NY, is the show Over Spilt Milk: The Fight for Fair Price & Fair Profit in Depression Era New York.
The exhibition, by the NY Food Museum, tells the story of New York’s Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative through pamphlets, broadsides, and vintage milk cartons from the 1930s, even with miniature dioramas.

The Co-op played "a pivotal role opening the market controlled by milk distribution giants. With their own processing plants and distribution stations, the Consumer-Farmer Co-op sold milk to consumers at the lowest possible price, and paid farmers the highest possible return, for nearly fifty years." Learn more at the Over Spilt Milkwebsite.

The design firm Pentagram blogs about their new packaging for Truvia, the new natural, no-calorie sweetener derived from the leaves of the stevia plant. Designed by Paula Scher and Daniel Weil, the brand identity is a marked contrast from established rivals Equal, NutraSweet, and Sweet ‘N Low. Lovely. [via]